


Red Cold River

by 1JettaPug



Category: Carnage (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Death, Blood, Bullying, Child Murder, Childhood Friends, Cutting, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fights, Friendship, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Misgendering, Murder, Slurs, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 19:04:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14527140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1JettaPug/pseuds/1JettaPug
Summary: Why had they set him up with some psychopath?! A psychopath that always had to steal his lunch, too!





	Red Cold River

Ash was alone in Mr. Hernandez's office, waiting to see him and Mrs. Calderon who had asked to see him. Sitting properly on the straight-back chair next to Mr. Hernandez's desk was making his back ache, but he knew from past experience that he had better be on his best behavior. Mr. Hernandez was the chief administrator of St. Este's School for Boys, and Mrs. Calderon worked as the live-in help, and the two of them always pounced on the boys if they slouched or did anything else "improper".

"Posture, posture," Mr. Hernandez would cry out when he passed them in the cafeteria, and all the boys would snap to attention. Those who didn't obey him had to walk around with a book on their heads for hours, and if the book fell off, they would have to do it over again the next day.

"You boys have either been sent here for a particular reason or you're orphans," he lectured to them, "You must learn manners, politeness, and most certainly more respect for your elders. You must become righteous members of society. Why," he asked, sweeping his eyes over each and every one of them critically, "Why should society accept you if you do not behave in the correct manner?"

He was right. Why should society accept him? He wasn't... Ash wasn't... On paper, Ash didn't really belong here. Ash should have been taken across the city to St. Helga's School for Girls, but he fought with the social workers- the administrators- anyone and everyone that tried to get him to behave the way society wanted him to behave. He knew that he would be forever cast out and not accepted as a normal every day person. He knew that... and he accepted it.

Still, just because Ash knew what he was did not mean others were willing to accept it. Just the other day, Jerry Lawson called him a "tranny" and a "faggot".

"No wonder your momma ran out on you," he taunted him. "I wouldn't want to be around and take care of a snot-nosed little faggot like you! You're a girl! Face the truth, bitch!" 

He strutted away with his head high, and Ash could tell it made him feel better to make him feel bad. His tears were like trophies for him, and the sight of them didn't make him feel sorry. Instead, they encouraged him.

Ash tried to shake his thoughts by turning his gaze at the bookcase, the pictures on Mr. Hernandez's desk, the letters in frames congratulating him on his performance as an administrator. Bored with the things decorating Mr. Hernandez's office, Ash turned around in his chair to stare out the windows. It was a sunny spring day. He sighed as he looked out at the trees, their shiny green leaves and budding blossoms calling to him. Everything was growing likes weeds because of the heavy spring rain, and he could tell Mrs. Calderon's cousins, the groundskeepers, weren't too excited to be mowing the endless lawns so early in the season. For a moment, Ash drifted away in the monotonous sound of the lawnmowers and the dazzling sunlight streaming in through the windows. He forgot that he was in Mr. Hernandez's office, forgot he was slouching with his eyes closed.

Sighing, Ash straightened back up but closed his eyes once more, this time trying to remember his real father, but his earliest memories are of being locked in a cruddy apartment all alone. He was brought to St. Este's School for Boys when he was nearly seven. Ash was almost eleven now, but even he would admit that he still resembled a seven-year-old child. Because he couldn't remember his real father, the other boys all bullied him by constantly telling him that his mother probably whored herself out to all kinds of men. The boys all thought it was the best joke in the world, and they always laughed at it.

His knuckled turned sheet white with how hard he was starting to grip the edges of the chair, and he began to feel that old familiar burning sensation run his body. Ash hated them. He hated feeling like this. Like he wanted to grab one of the kitchen knives and make quick work of them. He didn't like these dark thoughts that sprinted through his mind whenever he got this angry.

Desperately, he wished with all his heart that he was destined to soar high above the earth above troubles and doubts, high above nasty little children who made fun of other people just because they were different than them in some way. Someday, he knew that he just had to break free from all of this and escape it for good.

Yes, yes, someday he would be free from this hell. He could climb higher and higher until he was gone from their scornful sights. 

He'd show them. 

He'd show them all.

Someday.

"Straighten up," Mr. Hernandez spoke sharply, snapping Ash out of his daze.

He did so quickly.

"Yessir, Mr. Hernandez." he said.

"Now, Ash, I know you above a lot of boys here have a decent track record," Mr. Hernandez said, taking a seat at his desk. "You can be trusted by Mrs. Calderon and I."

"Uhuh," he nodded, not sure of what else to say.

"So Mrs. Calderon and I have decided that it would be in our newest addition's best interest if you were to watch over him and guide him."

"Guide someone?"

"Yes, yes," he said, fiddling with a pen he'd plucked from an empty mug. "We need him to have a good influence on him after the, eh, experiences he went through. Poor boy. He needs some positivity in his life so that he won't go down a wrong path and not become a righteous member of society."

Ash decided he hated hearing the word righteous. It seemed overblown and overused in a place where it didn't even exist. He narrowed his eyes just a bit and said,

"So I just need to be his buddy?"

"And a positive one at that." Mr. Hernandez said. "Ah, here he comes now with Mrs. Calderon." He motioned for them to enter, saying, "Come in, come in. We've been waiting for you, Cletus."

"I told ya, I don't need a guide!" A fiery red-head roared as he came stomping into the office. "I don't need no one!"

"You mean to say you do not need anyone, Mr. Kasady." Mrs. Calderon corrected his grammar.

The striking green of his eyes shrank in size until almost the whites of his eyes were only visible as he sent her a furious look. Ash shivered at the amount of hatred and fury that had just entered the room in the body of a lanky pre-teen. 

Besides his prominent emerald eyes, the first thing Ash had really noticed was that he was too thin, all sharp angles and pale skin. Then despite his lithe physique, Cletus seemed to be older than him, maybe twelve or thirteen. A noticeable bandaged up hand running up in the air caught Ash's eyes and led him to the pile of hell fire that rested on top of his head, and with it bringing attention to the fact it was still growing out of its old horrible bowl haircut.

Ash swallowed, nervously tucking a stray strand of chocolate brown hair behind his ear. He had no clue how to approach him, and he was pretty sure this kid was going to bite him if he did approach him. He tried to introduce himself anyway. 

“H- Hiya, Cletus... I'm-”

" _Fuck you_ ,” Cletus snapped, his scowl building unease in Ash’s stomach. Quickly, the taller boy was ushered out of the office and taken to the hallway for a stern lecture about "inappropriate language". Ash frowned, only now realizing what he had to look forward to for however long Cletus was going to be staying with them.

**XXX**

Each day could not pass fast enough for Ash, the hours filled themselves with his new "friend", Cletus. Instead of leading him around and showing him what was what, he was the one to follow Cletus around and say that he shouldn't get into trouble. Cletus smacked him on the back of the head every time he opened his mouth to object to stealing someone else's stuff, setting napkins on fire, throwing rocks at birds and squirrels and setting up tripwires around the building in hopes someone fell and broke their neck. Ash couldn't tell any of the adults about what was happening because each time he tried to speak up, Cletus threatened to slice open his belly and spread his organs around the playground.

Why, he asked himself. Why had they set him up with some psychopath?! A psychopath that always had to steal his lunch, too! The older boy always stole the best parts of his food, sometimes taking the food away right when Ash was about to bite into it.

It wasn't as if he could just leave Cletus on his own, either! First off, Mr. Hernandez had expected him to be a model citizen for the red-head, so he always wanted to see the two of them side by side. Secondly, Ash was actually afraid that if he left Cletus alone for too long, then the whole place would burn down and everyone would die a horrible death!

The adults in his life actually put him in charge of keeping an eye on a psycho! He would never get over that. Not even on his own deathbed would he get over it! It was just too insane!

One of the only good things about being forced to hang out with Cletus was that he seemed to know how to make all of the snide comments stop with a dark glare. He had every boy in St. Este's crying, bloodied up, and broken in less than two weeks! None of his victims dared breathe a word to an adult, fearing the same threat that Ash was given. And despite how crazy and dark that all was, Ash strangely felt comforted by the fact that Cletus was something like a lanky bodyguard to him. All he had to do was hide behind the taller boy, and his bullies instantly fled in mortal terror. Cletus laughed whenever they did that, and he occasionally turned right around and pat Ash on the head. 

"Aww, is the little baby scared?" he teased him, pinching his cheek. Ash usually swatted at the hand but made no remark, knowing better than to give Cletus a reaction.

The only other positive thing about Cletus was that he didn't care what gender Ash was. He said something along the lines of, "I don't give a flying fuck what's in your pants! Why the fuck would I?!" It was probably the best reaction Ash had ever gotten from someone about his gender, and he about teared up and cried into Cletus' shirt right there on the spot. (But he didn't cause that would've gotten him knocked flat on his back with a bloody nose.)

So even though Ash had to deal with Cletus' antics all day, he was finally getting used to them. After all, he didn't really care too much about Cletus stealing as long as it wasn't his stuff. The stuff he set on fire usually burned itself out, and the tripwires never managed to break anyone's bones or snaps their necks.

But...

But, one day, Ash was met with a challenged when Cletus managed to get his hands on one of the neighborhood's many stray cats.

It started out on a Saturday afternoon, when the two of them were sitting down eating lunch. At this point, Ash just gave half of his food to Cletus before the lanky boy snatched it up from his plate. Ash just told himself that he was just sharing with a kid who was starving and underfed, even though he knew Cletus ate more than any boy there and stole snacks from the kitchen. He never gained an ounce of weight though, and Ash gave up trying to find out how that was even possible. 

As per usual, Cletus started speaking in that same fashion he always did, loud and boisterously about anything that came to mind. Ash nodded and hummed at the right times, sometimes even laughing when Cletus did.

After a few minutes, however, Cletus stopped going on about the time he saw a man run over right in front of his old house and elbowed Ash in the side. "Hey," he whispered, looking down at him through his lashes with his apple-red cheeks that were littered with freckles, "Wanna do something _fun_?"

Ash set down his juice box and raised an eyebrow. "Fun? What kinda fun you talking about?"

"Just get up and follow me, _kiddo_ ," Cletus smirked, knowing how much Ash hated it when he called him "kiddo". He was just a year younger than him!

But rather than attempting to butt heads, Ash just shrugged and followed Cletus out of the back of the fence of St. Este's. They wandered around the back alleyways of the neighborhood for an hour before Cletus stopped before an old, beaten up raccoon trap. Something inside of it was hissing and scratching like crazy, and Ash had ducked behind Cletus to avoid seeing what exactly was in there.

"Ya scared?" Cletus sneered at him from over his shoulder.

"Why we here, Cletus?" he muttered, softly. His eyes darted side to side, looking for an escape or an adult, but all he saw was walls on both sides and no one else around. "Whatchu gonna do with that thing?"

"Who me? Nothing, nothing at all," he spoke all soft and innocent like. "My knife on the other hand, though." In a flash, he pulled out a switchblade and pointed it towards the cage. "Listen up, kiddo, cause I don't like repeatin' myself." he barked at him. He shoved Ash down against the wall, then went over and kicked the cage closer to him.

Ash brought his knees up to his chin and nearly started panicking at the frightened tabby cat that was trapped inside the cage. It was hissing something real fierce now. " _Cletus_..."

"Now, I want an audience for a nice change of pace," Cletus talked over him, strutting around like a grand showman who was about to preform. "And since you're the only little shit I don't totally want to shank repeatedly over and over again cause you know when to shut the fuck up and let me be me, I want you to be it!"

"..." Ash's eyes darted over to the deranged cat again.

"You get to watch me work..." Cletus told him. "Well, after you do _one_ little thing for me."

Ash stuttered, "W- What would that b- be...?!"

Cletus' eyes shrank down like the first time he met him, and Ash felt as if his soul were being frozen by those eyes now. "Open the cage~"

"W- What-"

"Do this and maybe I won't kill you afterwards!" Cletus hissed at him, not very happy Ash's first words weren't "Yes, Cletus. Of course, Cletus."

"B- But-"

He jumped over to him and held the knife right next to his face. " _JUST DO IT_!"

"ALRIGHT!" Ash cried out, moving away from the knife and quickly throwing open the cage. Harshly and quickly, he was shoved out of the way so that Cletus could jump in with his knife.

Ash couldn't find it in himself to tear his eyes away from the gruesome scene, All he could do was watch it all play out in front of him. He curled up on his side and let the sounds of slashing and hacking fall upon his ears.

Soon, or maybe it was an eternity later, the sun started to dip into the horizon. All that could be heard now was the sound of flies and Cletus' dark chuckles. He sounded like a child who had just finished a fun day at a carnival, tired but happy. A few more minutes of laughs passed before the red-head turned around towards Ash and started walking over to him. He pat his head, smearing blood on his brown hair. 

"Ya have _fun_ , too?" he asked him, softly. 

Fun... Fun...? 

Tears pricked at Ash's eyes as he finally howled woefully into his hands, shaking his head, wishing desperately that none of that had just happened. But he hadn’t just witnessed an animal that had died with little to no dignity– he’d just witnessed a butchering of an innocent animal.

Those images would haunt him for the rest of his life. There had been so much blood. The mix of soggy and dry entrails seeping out of the cat’s stomach, not cleanly cut open, all spread out along the concrete. Organs had been physically removed and placed outside of the cat’s body. An intestine wound around its neck, like a noose. Or perhaps it was meant as a fashion accessory.

It was too much. Ash began to cry, loud and proper, into his hands. Everything was just too much. Oh god, he was going to be sick.

"Don't be a damn pussy," Cletus poked him in the side. It then dawned upon him that he had just made a dark pun, and he threw his head back in laughter once more. "OH MAN, I'm fuckin' hilarious! Right, kiddo?"

Ash's face formed an expression of unutterable horror as he began to scramble away from him. Cletus only grinned at the sight.

“Whatchu doing, kiddo? Need any help tryin' to get back to ol' St. Este's?” he chuckled.

“ _Cletus_...” Ash drew in a quick breath and tried to run proper.

"Speechless, huh? The first person I allow to be my fuckin' audience member," Cletus started shouting now, waving his arms about. "And he's fuckin' speechless!" He walked right over and gave Ash an encouraging smack on the back and then took his leave. “Alright! That's super cool! Thanks, Ash! I knew you'd be good for this! I just knew it! See you back at St. Este's."

He stopped right before he turned a corner, looking back at Ash to say one thing, "Oh and if you _do_ tell anyone about this or me, then I _really_ will murder you. Okay? Okay!"

Once, and only once, Ash was certain that Cletus was far, far away from him, he collapsed onto the ground and started to cry once more.


End file.
